So why are we doing this?

Because we can! :-)
I was going to go on and add that we are all "Young, Healthy and Wealthy" - but that would be lying.

I think we would all agree that none of us are "Wealthy", but we are all self-employed, so that does allow us to be a little more flexible with how we spend our time.  So we can choose to make this trip.... but we are having to do it on a tight budget - My initial idea of staying in quaint little B&Bs was quickly superseded with budget camping!

And I think we would all agree that none of us are "Young" - though I guess this is a relative term.  For instance I would say that Scott is young.  Lorne would say that Scott is young, and both Lorne and Scott would say I (Tim) was old...... Its true, I am old........ or very soon will be.  In approximately one months time I shall become 50.  And this is one of the reasons the idea came up to make this trip - A birthday trip!
It all started maybe 9 months ago when the 'silly' suggestion came up (I think initiated by my wife) of making a scooter trip to the south of France for a birthday party to celebrate my 50th - my run to italy had been fun the year before, and now that a bunch of us had scooters, why not do a pack run across France?  Since my ride with Scott to Italy, my dad, brother and brother-in-law (actually both of them - Lorne is also my brother-in-law) had bought old scooters (there are a lot of scooter is in my family!) and  to all ride together toward the sunshine coast of Nice seemed like a grand idea - one that everyone initially responded to with great enthusiasm.  Sadly, like many 'silly' ideas, after thinking about it for a while, most people dropped out of the plan (which is a shame - we only live once, and we should never miss the opportunity to do something 'silly' in the sunshine - and I'd have liked to adventured a bit with my dad and bro - another time maybe?) and so the pack was quickly whittled down to the hard-core; Scott, Lorne and me (Tim).  We are doing this trip because we can, and we want to! :-)

And as for "Healthy"?  Well, I think we could all say we were healthy if it wasn't for one (or should that be 'two'?) small details..... But maybe Scott doesn't want me to share the details of his recent little snip here on this blog